What kind of workers have the responsibilities to prevent such accidents?

How do you think you would react in one of these disasters?

What are some examples of people who have lived through such disasters?

What happens to the people blamed for causing the disasters?

What are some examples of manmade disasters that repeat in the same place?

Animal attacks

436 – Champawat Tiger (India) The Champawat Tiger was a female Bengal Tiger shot in 1907 by Jim Corbett. It was allegedly responsible for 436 documented deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon area of India mostly during the 19th century.[1]After having killed over 200 people in Nepalit was driven by the Nepalese Army across the border (river Sarda) into India, where it continued its activities in the Kumaon District. It was so bold that it roamed the roads outside villages, roaring and terrorizing the villagers. All the killings were done during the daytime.The tigress had made a kill (a 16 year old girl) the day it was shot by Jim Corbett.

Aviation

583 – Tenerife airport disaster (Tenerife, 1977) The Tenerife airport disaster occurred on March 27, 1977, when two Boeing 747 passenger aircraft collided on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport (now known as Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. With a total of 583 fatalities, the crash is the deadliest accident in aviation history.The aircraft involved, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, were, along with many other aircraft, diverted to Tenerife from Gran Canaria Airport after a bomb exploded there. The threat of a second bomb forced the authorities to close the airport while a search was conducted. So many airplanes were diverted to the smaller Tenerife airport that controllers were forced to park many of them on the taxiway, thereby blocking it. Further complicating the situation, while waiting for authorities to reopen Gran Canaria, a dense fog developed at Tenerife, greatly reducing visibility. When Gran Canaria reopened, the parked aircraft blocking the taxiway at Tenerife required both 747s to taxi on the only runway in order to get in position for takeoff. Due to the fog, neither aircraft could see the other, nor could the controller in the tower see the runway or the two 747s on it. As the airport did not have ground radar, the only means for the controller to identify the location of each airplane was via voice reports over the radio. As a result of several misunderstandings in the ensuing communication, the KLM flight attempted to take off while the Pan Am flight was still on the runway. The resulting collision destroyed both aircraft, killing all 248 aboard the KLM flight and 335 out of 396 aboard the Pan Am flight. 61 people aboard the Pan Am flight, including the pilots and flight engineer, survived the disaster.[1]As the accident occurred on Spanish territory, that nation was responsible for investigating the accident. Investigators from the Netherlands and the United States also participated. The investigation would reveal the primary cause of the accident was the captain of the KLM flight took off without clearance from Air Traffic Control.[1] The investigation would however specify that the captain did not intentionally take off without clearance, rather he fully believed he had clearance to take off due to misunderstandings between his flight crew and ATC.[1] Dutch investigators would place a greater emphasis on this than their American and Spanish counterparts,[2] but ultimately KLM would admit their crew was responsible for the accident, and the airline financially compensated the victims.[3]The accident had a large influence on the industry, particularly in the area of communication. An increased emphasis was placed on using standardized phraseology in ATC communication by both controllers and pilots alike, thereby reducing the chance for misunderstandings. As part of these changes, the word "takeoff" was removed from general usage, and is only spoken by ATC when actually clearing an aircraft to take off.[4] Less experienced flight crew members were encouraged to challenge their captains when they believed something was not correct, and captains were instructed to listen to their crew and evaluate all decisions in light of crew concerns. This concept would later be expanded into what is known today as Crew Resource Management. CRM training is now mandatory for all airline pilots.

1,549 – Benxihu Colliery explosion, (China, 1942) Benxihu (Honkeiko) Colliery (simplified Chinese: 本溪湖煤矿; traditional Chinese: 本溪湖煤礦), located in Benxi, Liaoning, China, was first mined in 1905. It started as a iron and coal mining project under joint Japanese and Chinese control. As time passed, the project came more and more under Japanese control. In the early 1930s, Japan invaded the north east of China and Liaoning province became part of the Japanese controlled puppet state of Manchukuo. The Japanese forced the Chinese to work the colliery under very poor conditions. Food was scarce and workers didn't have sufficient clothing.[1] Working conditions were harsh and diseases such as typhoid and cholera flourished.[2] Typically miners worked 12 hour shifts or longer. The Japanese controllers were known to beat workers with pick handles and the perimeter of the mine was fenced and guarded. Many describe the work as slave labour.On April 26, 1942, a gas and coal-dust explosion in the mine killed 1,549, 34% of the miners working that day, making it the worst disaster in the history of coal mining to date. The explosion sent flames bursting out of the mine shaft entrance. Miners' relatives rushed to the site but were denied entry by a cordon of Japanese guards who erected electric fences to keep them out. In an attempt to curtail the fire underground, the Japanese shut off the ventilation and sealed the pit head. Witnesses say that the Japanese did not evacuate the pit fully before sealing it; trapping many Chinese workers underground to suffocate in the smoke.[2] Thus the actions of the Japanese are blamed for needlessly increasing the death toll. It took workers ten days to remove all the corpses and rubble from the shaft. The dead were buried in a mass grave nearby. Many victims could not be properly identified due to the extent of the burns. The Japanese at first reported the death toll to be just 34.[1] Initial newspaper reports were short, as little as 40 words, and downplayed the size of the disaster as a minor event. Later the Japanese erected a monument to the dead. This stone gave the number of dead to be 1327.[3] The true number is believed to be 1,549.[4]Of this number, 31 were Japanese, the rest Chinese.[2] The mine continued to be operated by the Japanese until the end of World War II in 1945. Following the Japanese withdrawal, the workers took control of the site. With the liberation after the war, the Soviet Union investigated the accident. They found that only some of the workers died from the gas and coal-dust explosion. The Soviet report states that most deaths were of Carbon Monoxide poisoning due to the closing of ventilation after the initial explosion.[2]